


Ogden's Finest

by Just_a_weave



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Post-War, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24320650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_a_weave/pseuds/Just_a_weave
Summary: Hermione deals with her emotions and Snape is...nice?
Kudos: 5





	Ogden's Finest

There was a light haze in the air as she set down her empty glass on the table. The almost empty Hogs Head was quiet, the only sound coming from the crackling fire and the almost-inaudible sizzle when Aberforth puffed on his pipe behind the bar. The barman had long given up on refilling her drinks and had instead left the bottle of Ogden’s finest on the table with her. Merlin knew the young woman had seen enough to deserve a good drink, but he worried that for the past month she had been coming in alone, drinking herself into a quiet stupor and then making her way back to the castle. The war was not too far behind them and everyone had lost someone, Aberforth knew that. However there was something that had changed since then that had sent this usually level-headed girl into a downward spiral. As he watched the girl pour another glass and down it in a single gulp, grimacing at the burn, Aberforth made a decision. He had seen many wizards drink their lives away in his pub, and he couldn’t bear to see the same happen to someone who had once had such a bright future ahead of her. He retreated into his back room to make a firecall.

  
\--

  
The door was surprisingly silent as it swung open, a few errant snowflakes floating in as a dark figure swept into the Hog’s Head and stopped before the only occupied table. He gave the barman a single nod and watched as the man stepped into his back room to give them a bit of privacy. His dark eyes settled on the head of brown hair, knowing that the girl had noticed his presence but her eyes were still fixed on the table before her. 

‘Granger, what are you doing here? Is this where you’ve been disappearing to every night?’ He spoke softly, seeing that Hermione was most likely in an emotionally fragile state. This was the girl who had saved his life in the shack on that terrible night and he owed it to her to drop his usual harsh persona and let her open up if she needed. In truth that persona was mostly something he kept up as a means to protect himself from those that thought he could be taken advantage of, and years of bitterness and self-denigration had perfected it into a hard impenetrable shell. But if anyone deserved to see through that exterior it was Hermione Granger.

‘Have you ever lost something that you never realised you needed? Something that didn’t seem important, something you took for granted, and now it’s gone and you just want to stop feeling at all because all you can feel is the gaping wound in your soul where something used to be.’ She poured another drink and downed it. Severus took the bottle before she could refill her glass and moved it onto a neighbouring table where it was out of her reach. For the first time since he had entered the pub, she looked up from the table, light brown eyes meeting his dark ones. The pain in her eyes was something he had seen in the mirror many times and his heart hurt to see her pain. Just when I thought she was going to remain silent, she continued speaking. ‘Things were getting better after the war. I thought I was happy. Towards the end, when the war really started, it was like life stood still, but once it was over and he was dead, we could finally breathe again. Our lives could finally begin. I was happy.’ She put her head in her hands and I could see her shoulders tremble.

‘What happened Hermione?’ I knew I was probably the last person she wanted to bare her pain to, and I was prying into things I had no business knowing, but something within me told me that I could not let her pain do to her what mine had done to me.

‘I’m broken, Severus,’ She said it in one breath, my name coming out as a whisper. ‘I’m damaged goods.’ I stayed silent, knowing she would speak when she felt ready. I pulled out my wand and with a silent aguamenti I filled her glass with water. She took the glass from me, sipping silently as she collected her scattered thoughts. 

‘Last month I was late and I thought...I thought maybe...you know.’ It took me a moment to catch on but when it clicked I looked from her to the bottle of firewhiskey on the next table. Seeing my concern, she chuckled dryly.

‘Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m definitely not. But when I told Ronald that I might be, he flipped out. He told me in no uncertain terms that I was stupid to be so careless, nevermind that we were engaged, and I had to get rid of it and if I wanted to keep the little parasite I would be raising it on my own.’

I was glad to see her anger as she recounted Weasley’s tirade, knowing that feeling something was better then the numbness she had been heading towards, but I knew there was more to this story. ‘I didn’t think much of Mr Weasley before, but this is beyond anything I ever expected from him.’

‘He changed his tune as soon as I took a muggle pregnancy test and it came out negative, but he still insisted I go to Poppy and have her confirm the results. While I was in there he had the nerve to ask her if there was anything she could do to make sure this would never happen again. I may have lost my temper at him at that point.’ She nibbled on her lip, smirking and looking proud of herself.

I could tell that this was definitely a story I wanted to hear, ‘You lost your temper?’ I thought back to her third year at Hogwarts when Draco Malfoy spent a good month muttering about her breaking his nose.

Hermione muttered something, her smile growing as she remembered the scene.

‘I’m sorry, Miss Granger. I missed that, you’ll have to speak up.’

‘I told him that I wasn’t a bitch for him to get spayed and if he was looking for a quick fuck with no potential consequences he should invest in a sex doll.’

Before he knew it, Severus had thrown his head back and laughed harder than he had in a long time. Hermione soon joined him and they both laughed until they were out of breath. However, Hermione’s laughter dissolved into tears before long and she stared off across the darkened room into the fire. 

‘I threw my engagement ring at him and told him to sod off. I hope he knows we’re done. I’ve seen his true colours and I can’t be with someone like that.’ She got up and grabbed the firewhiskey before returning to her seat and poured herself a glass after spelling her remaining water into ice cubes. Severus didn’t stop her, realising that the next part of her tale was most likely the hardest for her.

‘Poppy checked me over and confirmed that I wasn’t pregnant, but she also discovered something else. You remember when I was captured towards the end of the war and taken to Malfoy Manor? When Bellatrix tortured me?’ She saw Severus nod slightly and continued speaking, ‘She did more damage to me than we thought, and obviously I couldn’t just waltz up to St Mungo’s for treatment so my body just healed everything to the best of its ability.’ She looked into her drink, swishing it around in the glass as though looking for an answer to her troubles. 

Hermione took a deep breath, a sob catching in her throat. ‘I can’t have kids, Severus.’ Severus saw her crumble and sink into herself, sobs shaking her small frame. He came around the table and took her into his arms, his reputation be damned. This girl, no, this woman was hurting and she had bared her soul to him, had ripped open a wound that was still raw, and Severus was not going to let her think she was completely alone in her suffering. ‘I’m broken, Severus. I thought I had my whole life to decide whether or not I wanted children but now I’ll never get the chance.’ Words failed her and she buried her head in her former potions master’s chest, his robes clenched in her fists. He had one arm around her and his other hand stroked her hair, allowing her to let out all the emotions she had no doubt been bottling up and numbing with alcohol for the past month.   
Eventually, once she had cried herself out, she looked up at him, eyes puffy, ‘I’m sorry, Severus. You must think I’m completely pathetic.’

‘No-one can be strong forever, Hermione. You have done more than earn the right to break down after what you’ve been through. Let’s get you back to the castle, I’m sure the house elves will have a warm bath and a nice cup of tea ready for you in your quarters when you get back.’ He helped her stand and, after leaving a few coins on the table for Aberforth, stepped into the floo with her, not trusting her to floo alone after so much drink. As the swirling green flames swept the pair away, Severus smiled when he thought of the anonymous letter the Weasley matriarch was going to receive about the abhorrent behaviour of her youngest son. 


End file.
